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FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — Access to high-speed internet is something people living in urban areas can often take for granted. Up in Coconino County, there are wide gaps in internet access, even in Flagstaff.
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So the Arizona company Wecom Fiber is finishing up the first phase of its project to bring high-speed internet to thousands of people in Flagstaff and Coconino County.
Crews have been popping up around Flagstaff over the last year. They are Wecom Fiber crews installing fiber internet cables in neighborhoods across Coconino County.
Rachel Solomon is Wecom Fiber’s CEO. She said $118 million is being invested by the company, the state, the city and the county to bring high-speed internet to the region.
“When you have digital infrastructure, when you have fiber, it changes lives,” she said.
People in the most rural areas of northern Arizona, like the Navajo Nation, can travel 100 miles round trip to access the internet in hubs like Flagstaff.
The average American can get download speeds of 214 megabits per second. Arizona’s Family tested speeds around Flagstaff; they ranged from 30 to 120 megabits per second.
“What we’re allowing is lightning-fast speeds that allow people to dream big in different ways,” Solomon said. “It allows kids to tackle educational problems.”
Hundreds of Flagstaff households already have access to fiber internet, but by the end of this year 15,000 will have access, and 30,000 will have access in the next few years.
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Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett said this includes connecting 34 city facilities in addition to tens of thousands of homes.
“So all of this infrastructure is going to enable the city to work more efficiently as well as all of Flagstaff’s local businesses, including the hospital and other big institutions,” Daggett said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, people living in rural areas who don’t have reliable access to the internet can miss out on important job or school needs, and even lose out on health benefits such as telemedicine.
Mayor Daggett said this upgrade will make a real impact on people’s lives.
“For people who have already had access to internet in Flagstaff, but maybe it’s slow or it drops that’s an annoyance,” she said. “For people who have never had access to it this could be a game changer.”
Wecom was founded in Kingman 70 years ago, the company said, and it understands rural needs. The project is expected to be completed in 2028.
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